Spring Courgette & Flowers Quiche

As I guess Spring is finally here, this is the time of the year when I start to take confidence in my nascent baking/pastry making skills. I love a good homemade Quiche, and I don't mean one of those heavy bacon and cheese Lorraine jobbies - I think Quiche can be light, crumbly on the outside and still-warm and deliciously eggy in the middle.

I know it's still early in the season to be bantering on about courgette flowers (ok, I admit, this photo was taken last summer - and yes, the courgettes, their flowers, the Spring onions and mint were all pulled fresh from the garden) but for me they are the essence of Spring, when it comes to flavours.

I can't really remember the pastry bit of the recipe (but I did freeze the butter and grated it into the flour) but it made all the difference to the crumbliness of the pastry base. Once blind baked, I sauteed in a little butter the courgettes, Spring onions, and followed with mint, chives and the flowers and seasoning. I left the mixture to cool off and then whisked free range eggs with a good dollop of Creme Fraiche (which was courtesy of the very lovely Rachel's Organic), poured this over the sauteed courgettes and baked it until set.

I served it warm, with a salad of baby beetroot leaves and chive flowers drizzled with a lemon oil vinaigrette.